Jon Kabat-Zinn to Discuss Mindfulness Meditation at Dartmouth

February 24, 2011
Lebanon, NH

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD

Mindfulness meditation teacher, researcher, writer, and world-renowned expert Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, will give two public presentations at Dartmouth to introduce mindfulness meditation and how it is being incorporated into a wide range of clinical programs in medicine and psychology as well as in personal lives.

The presentations, hosted and sponsored by the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Palliative Care Service, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and the Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College, include a lecture titled "The Healing Power of Mindfulness: Living as if Your Moments Really Mattered," scheduled for Thursday, April 7, beginning at 4:30 p.m., to be held in Spaulding Auditorium on the Dartmouth College campus. On Saturday, April 9, Dr. Kabat-Zinn will direct "A Day of Mindfulness Practice and Dialogue," an all-day retreat at Rollins Chapel on the College campus.

Mindfulness meditation, says Dr. Kabat-Zinn, "is really all about paying attention, about facing the actuality of things. It's a new way of being in relationship with one's experience." In clinical settings, it has proven to be an effective path for patients to be integrated into their treatment. "It draws on your own internal resources and offers great potential for learning, growing, and healing. It helps us live lives that are more authentic and accepting," he comments, adding that the National Institutes of Health is "really getting behind this. They have funded many, many studies that consistently show the power of healing that's within the mind-body connection."

Ira Byock, MD, Director of the D-H Palliative Care Service, notes the special significance of Dr. Kabat-Zinn's appearances at Dartmouth. "We can best practice whole person care and advance the health of the population we serve by being whole and healthy ourselves," he comments. "Jon's visit to Dartmouth is evidence of our commitment to the health of our entire community."

Kabat-Zinn is founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founding director of its Stress Reduction Clinic and is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in various venues around the world."The potential to ask interesting questions about the mind-body connection and mindfulness meditation's role in that connection has never been higher," he says. "It is an incredibly opportune time to do research into this."

In the April 7 lecture, Dr. Kabat-Zinn will describe findings in mindfulness meditation research and discuss how consciously interfacing with one's unfolding life from moment to moment, both inwardly and outwardly, can make a huge difference in mental, emotional, and physical well-being as well as in society as a whole. During the April 9 all-day retreat, he will present a range of methods for cultivating mindfulness, becoming familiar with "spacious wakefulness and silence," and "coming into" the senses literally and metaphorically. Yoga practice will be part of the day's activities. The retreat requires advance registration with a $25 registration fee, and the day includes a light lunch. Capacity is limited. For more information and to register, go to http://www.dartmouth.edu/~tucker/#mind

Palliative care is a team approach to enhancing comfort and quality of life for people with serious illness and their families. Norris Cotton Cancer Center combines advanced cancer research at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School with patient-centered cancer care provided at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock regional locations in Manchester and Keene, NH, and St. Johnsbury, VT, and at 11 partner hospitals throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. It is recognized and designated by the National Cancer Institute for its breadth and depth as one of just 40 Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the U.S. Learn more about Norris Cotton Cancer Center research, programs, and clinical trials online at cancer.dartmouth.edu.